Ballet Jorgen blows in with whirlwind of events

Week-long Halifax visit includes Swan Lake at Cohn, master classes, studio show and more

During this week’s visit to Halifax, Ballet Jorgen Canada, is doing over 20 different events, from library presentations, to master classes, Saturday night’s Ballet in the Studio and the popular Solos and Duets workshop and performance.

Ballet in the Studio, this year at the Meinertzhagen Theatre of the Halifax Grammar School, at 7 p.m. is a more intimate presentation of works by the Toronto classical company. It’s similar to a songwriters circle in which choreographers discuss the works and inspirations for them.

The program will feature Silences Between, choreographed by Truro’s Margot Begin-Gillis and Melissa Page-Webster; a new work by Toronto’s Derek Sangster titled Good Mourning; and excerpts from the company’s 25th anniversary production of Swan Lake, which Ballet Jorgen will present April 19 at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax.

“Excerpts from Swan Lake will include the White Swan Pas de Deux, danced by prima ballerina Saniya Abilmajineva and Daniel da Silva, Spanish and Czardas. It will give people a taste of what is to come,” says company artistic director Bengt Jorgen.

“It’s a classical Swan Lake set at Fortress Louisbourg in the very early 18th century, the height of the colonial period in early North America.

“Derek Sangster will chat about his work Good Mourning. It goes through the stages of what happens when you lose someone. It’s a redemptive work with beautiful dancing.”

About half of this year’s company of 25 dancers will dance in Good Mourning, including Taylor Gill, Abilmajineva, Cristina Graziano and Dartmouth’s Hannah Mae Cruddas, 19.

Gill and Kealan McLaughlin will dance Silences Between. The 15-minute work created on Gill and Livan Pujada, who is no longer with the company, had its world premiere in Truro in April as part of the Classical and Contemporary presentation.

The piece was created by Truro Dance Academy teachers in the annual Solos and Duets workshop, which pairs local choreographers with Ballet Jorgen dancers. It has become part of the company’s national touring repertoire along with Frog and Toad, developed in the same program a few years ago by Dartmouth’s Ruth Ellen Kroll-Jackson.

“This is the fourth time we’re doing Solos and Duets in Halifax,” says Jorgen. “Margot Begin-Gillis and Melissa Page-Webster are back but each will do their own works, Penelope Evans, Veronique MacKenzie and Georgia Rondos from New Brunswick will also take part. You never know where things are going to lead when you start out down the road.”

Ballet Jorgen Canada has established a hub in Halifax, “which is basically a second home with its own staff and board,” with a purpose of ensuring all Nova Scotia has access to ballet, says Jorgen.

“We want every child to see a ballet twice before they graduate from high school. We do the same programming as if they were based in the city with workshops and community programmings and school matinees.”

He notes the Cape Breton-set Swan Lake, the company’s biggest dance tour in a decade, involved a number of Nova Scotia people and events.

And he’s impressed with Cruddas, who was an apprentice with the company last year.

“She’s still developing. She’s progressing very well. I don’t know where her limit will be; she could become a real star. She’s a beautiful dancer.”

Cruddas describes being part of the company as “living what I’ve dreamed of for so long.”

Trained at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts School of Dance in Halifax, the Leica Hardy School of Dance in Dartmouth and Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto, Cruddas says she likes the fact she gets to dance both in Swan Lake, which is all en pointe, and in the more contemporary Good Mourning.

Free public library presentations: Friday 10:30 a.m. J. D. Shatford Public Library, 10353 St. Margaret’s Bay Road, Hubbards; Saturday 10:30 a.m. Bedford Public Library, 15 Dartmouth Rd. Using excerpts from their 25th anniversary production of Swan Lake and their children’s ballet A World To Shake, BJC dancers give an inside look at how ballet evokes emotions and tells a whole story without using words. For all ages.

Ballet In The Studio: Saturday, 7 p.m. Meinhertzhagen Theatre, Halifax. Silences Between by Truro’s Melissa Page-Webster and Margot Begin-Gillis, excerpts from Ballet Jörgen’s new production of Swan Lake and Derek Sangster’s Good Mourning. Includes informal introductions from the company about each piece and a chance to meet dancers at a reception. Tickets range from $15 to $21 at Dalhousie Arts Centre box office, 494-3820 or artscentre.dal.ca. See Good Mourning on YouTube.